No abstract

Language and literacy skills established during early childhood are critical for later school success. Parental engagement with children has been linked to a number of adaptive characteristics in preschoolers including language and literacy development, and family-school collaboration is an important contributor to school readiness. This study reports the results of a randomized trial of a parent engagement intervention designed to facilitate school readiness among disadvantaged preschool children, with a particular focus on language and literacy development. Participants included 217 children, 211 parents, and 29 Head Start teachers in 21 schools. Statistically significant differences in favor of the treatment group were observed between treatment and control participants in the rate of change over 2 academic years on teacher reports of children’s language use (d = 1.11), reading (d = 1.25), and writing skills (d = .93). Significant intervention effects on children’s direct measures of expressive language were identified for a subgroup of cases where there were concerns about a child’s development upon entry into preschool. Additionally, other child and family moderators revealed specific variables that influenced the treatment’s effects.

Recent publications have highlighted key issues in the application of AAC for beginning communicators, both children 0-3 years old and older children, and adults who are developing communication skills typical of that age group (Reichle, Beukelman, & Light, 2002). AAC includes a progression of communication skills from early behaviors to symbolic

A survey was constructed to gather information concerning the home literacy experiences of preschool children enrolled in Head Start and early childhood special education classrooms. A total of 291 surveys were analyzed, representing 95 children considered at risk, 166 children with special education needs, and 28 peer models who had no developmental delays or disabilities. The results indicated a number of differences across the three groups regarding the priority placed on literacy at home, the ways in which children were involved in reading and writing activities, the amount of progress they were thought to have made in the past year, and the future expectations of the respondents in this area. Overall, the respondents for children with special education needs appeared to place the lowest priority on literacy development and have the lowest expectations in this regard. These respondents also reported providing fewer types of early literacy experiences to the children at home. Possible explanations are provided for the results. Implications for early childhood special education (ECSE) personnel are discussed.There has been a recent upsurge of attention to literacy development in young children over the past decade, due in large measure to concerns about the high rate of illiteracy in the adult population. Estimates of the problem indicate that in the United States approximately 20% of adults/high school graduates have difficulty with common reading tasks; 13% cannot read at all (Applebee, Langer, & Mullis, 1986; Ferraro, 1986; National Assessment of Educational Progress, 1985). The data for school-age individuals suggest that this problem continues in the current generation of adolescents; for example, it appears that 40% of 13-year-olds in U.S. schools are unsuccessful at grade-level reading assignments (Stedman & Kaestle, 1987). These statistics suggest that the literacy experiences offered to many children in school or home settings may be inadequate or misdirected.Some of the environmental factors that appear to be correlated with reading acquisition in young children include socioeconomic level

One of the most controversial issues in contemporary research on creativity-whether a person's creativity is domain-specific or domain-general-was investigated with 109 second-grade children. The purposes of this study were to (1) provide empirical support for the domain-specific theory of creativity, (2) show relationships among children's creative performances as measured by three product-based assessments in three domains (storytelling, collage making, and math word problems), and (3) explore the relationship between children's creative performances and their general creative thinking skills, as measured by the Wallach-Kogan Creative Thinking Test and the Real-World Divergent Thinking Test. The findings of this study support the position of domain-specificity of creativity. Children exhibited a range of creative abilities across different domains, rather than a uniform creative ability in diverse domains, indicating there is considerable intra-individual variation in creative ability by domain. Divergent thinking measures in this study did not predict creative performance in at least two of three, if not all, domains assessed in the study. Implications of the study in connection with educational practices for gifted children are discussed.* * * * T he supposition that human creativity is a generalized ability-similar irrespective of the kind of discipline or subject matter involved-has guided much of the research and theory development in the study of creativity over the last 50 years (Barron,